The Pope County Quorum Court Budget Committee voted in favor of returning more than $1 million in FEMA grant money the Sheriff’s Office procured early this year after it was discovered the money wouldn’t be eligible for the department’s intended uses.

Pope County Judge Jim Ed Gibson said if the request is approved at Thursday’s full-court meeting, the $1,098,958 plus interest will be returned to FEMA, who issued the grant under the impression it would be spent toward port security, though it was hoped the money could be spent toward new radio systems that would connect the sheriff’s office with several other agencies in the county in the event of an emergency.

“It was a grant that was going to buy radio systems, and it was really a great thing to get radios for the emergency services, the Sheriff’s Office, the small city police departments and the road department,’ Gibson said. “After that grant was received, we placed the money in a grant account but there were some questions that came up about it and that’s why I requested to take that grant over.”

Once the county judge’s office takes the grant money over from the Sheriff’s Office, Gibson said two checks will be sent to FEMA — one in the amount of the grant, and one for interest the grant procured, which totaled $4,022.86 at the end of September. But while the county had the funds for nine months, Gibson assured none of the money was spent.

“I’ve heard some people say on the radio that (the Sheriff’s Office) had spent a little over half of the money, and I assure that’s not the case,” he said. “The total amount ... the money’s earmarked and the money’s still there.”

Sheriff Aaron DuVall said once questions arose over what the money could be spent on, a decision was made to not spend any until the issue was settled.

“When all of this started coming in, we weren’t going to go out and spend this money,” he said. “There’s been a lot of things said in the media that we’ve already spent this money and the county’s going to have to spend that money back out-of-pocket, but I don’t think that’s true.”

Justice David Ivy said the county needs to reevaluate its procedure in acquiring grants and the court should provide more oversight.

“If we’d spent this money, we’d be in a mess right now,” he said. “We’d be paying off a million dollar grant that we shouldn’t have spent. We’ve got a problem. I feel like this is a situation where this proves we need more oversight, especially from this court, in regards to what’s going on in this county with grants ... Just because it’s a grant, we are still responsible for this money.”

Gibson said all future grants will go through his office, and Budget Committee chairman David Rollans suggested the court work with the judge to create a process so similar issues don’t occur again.

Gibson attributed the error in the grant’s receipt to a miscommunication between FEMA and local entities, and said the money shouldn’t have been submitted until the department had submitted receipts for what it was planning to purchase.

“We just had some miscommunication from some of the people involved in FEMA and some of the people involved locally,” Gibson said. “I fault FEMA for sending the money in advance, but that’s water under the bridge.”

Gibson emphasized the need to still purchase radio systems and said the county will continue to look for funding.

“I anticipate that we’re going to continue to search and search and try to find money that will fall into our category where we could use it for day-to-day operations,” he said. “If we had purchased the radios, in the event of a disaster the Sheriff’s Office could communicate with all law enforcement necessary. They could’ve communicated with the road department, they could’ve communicated with the animal service, they could’ve communicated with all the fire departments. It would have been a tremendous asset to Pope County if we could use the money the way we wanted to use it.”

In other business, the Pope County Quorum Court Budget Committee approved the following to be reviewed by the full court Thursday:

• A $71,633.93 appropriation from the general fund to go toward an addition to the Pope County Senior Activity Center.

• A $4,200 appropriation from an Edward Byrne Memoiral (JAG) Progressive Grant and a $2,500 appropriation from a Southwestern Energy donation to go toward equipment for the Pope County Sheriff’s Office.

• A $2,062.47 appropriation from the sheriff’s general fund for parts and repairs.

• A $620 appropriation from the burn ban fines fund to miscellaneous law enforcement, to go to the Pope County Firefighter’s Association.

• A $1,627.50 appropriation to both the county clerk and treasurer for website support.

• $8,765 in library grant funds to be appropriated for small equipment in the Pope County Library.

• A $1,500 and a $500 transfer from other professional services in the election commission to social security and retirement matching, respectively.

• A $4,000 transfer from Circuit Judge Pearson’s Automation Fund’s machinery and equipment fund to the small equipment fund.